#5 Tank Abbott vs. Big John McCarthy
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We go back to the early days of the UFC for our final myth.
Tank Abbott had made his name in the UFC as a tough street fighter. He’d come into the promotion at UFC 6 and immediately made a splash, knocking out John Matua and Paul Varelans violently before coming up short in the finals against Oleg Taktarov.
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He went on to have infamous fights with the likes of Don Frye, Maurice Smith and Pedro Rizzo, but perhaps his most notorious moment came during his rivalry with iconic referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy.
McCarthy, for those who don’t know, isn’t just a referee. He’s 6’4”, 260lbs, a former LAPD officer and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Rorion Gracie. Not the type of guy to be messed with, hence he’s such a legendary figure in the MMA world as one of the men who can separate the baddest men on the planet during a fight.
The incident between McCarthy and Tank Abbott purportedly started at UFC 8, which took place in Puerto Rico back in February 1996. Abbott wasn’t fighting at the event, but he was there as he was one of SEG’s favourite UFC personalities. Also attending the event was BJJ black belt Allan Goes, acting as a cornerman for a couple of the fighters.
Goes and Abbott had done some training together previously, and supposedly it hadn’t gone well for Abbott, who was trying to improve his jiu-jitsu game. Goes had told anyone that would listen that he’d handled Abbott in their sessions and Tank wasn’t impressed by this.
At UFC 8, when Abbott spotted Goes, egged on by his girlfriend, he apparently tried to confront him. This was of course during the period where the government were looking to shut the UFC down, and so the last thing they needed was a cage side brawl.
UFC officials stepped in and prevented the confrontation from escalating, and McCarthy’s wife Elaine who was also cage side admonished Abbott’s girlfriend for encouraging Tank. This caused Tank to turn on Elaine, threatening to kill her and according to most sources scaring the hell out of her.
McCarthy – who missed the whole incident as he was refereeing the Ken Shamrock/Kimo Leopoldo fight – found out later and was furious.
Then-UFC head honcho Bob Meyrowitz apparently said he thought McCarthy would genuinely kill Abbott if he could get to him, but thankfully Tank was nowhere to be seen; apparently he also had issues with Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den crew and decided too many people were after him.
McCarthy threatened to quit the UFC unless they got rid of Abbott, but faced with the prospect of losing their best referee and one of their poster-boys, SEG engineered another way out.
They suspended Abbott for a year and then had him write a letter of apology to Elaine McCarthy and the UFC for his part in the incident. The McCarthys accepted the apology, and the show went on.
What would’ve happened had Big John fought Tank? Who knows. We know that McCarthy is a big dude who can clearly handle himself, particularly on the ground, and he must’ve been seriously angry as his wife was threatened. But he wasn’t a pro-fighter, while Abbott was.
It might’ve been interesting, actually, but it’s probably better that it never happened. Still, it’s another classic myth from the early days of MMA.
Got any more myths you’re aware of? Please let me know!
Until next time....
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